New Poll: 42% of Americans Don't Know We're Still at War in Afghanistan
Rasmussen Reports released the results of a new survey Monday that found 42% of respondents either incorrectly said we are not still at war in Afghanistan or said they were not sure.
Overall, 58% of respondents said we are still at war in Afghanistan. However, 21% said they thought the Afghanistan war was not still going on, and an equal amount said they were not sure.
Breaking it down by party: 64% of Republicans, 52% of Democrats, and 58% of voters not affiliated with either party know we are still at war in Afghanistan.
Seventeen years later, the war gets no attention in the 24-hour news cycle, and is generally out of the nation's collective consciousness, so are these numbers really surprising?
Ensuring the American public remains informed is the job of the media, yet when the entire news cycle is devoted to three stories at most or 90 percent is about the president -- the media completely fails at its purpose. Everything else falls by the wayside and the people are left in ignorance.
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About the Author
Shawn M Griffiths
Shawn is the Election Reform Editor for IVN.us. He studied history and philosophy at the University of North Texas, and joined the IVN team in 2012. He has several years of experience covering the broad scope of political and election reform efforts across the country, and has an extensive knowledge of the movement at large. A native Texan, he now lives in San Diego, California.